Manga is too cultured for us lowly "normies" to grasp, apparently

(obligatory "I'm on mobile" spiel. This happened a while ago so might not be word perfect but my memory is pretty good).

I work in a store that has a decent sized books department. It's got a fairly basic layout, all the same stuff together, clear signage directing to each section, super easy to navigate. But inevitably you get those people that can't be arsed to walk around a little and look for the right sign, and those people bee-line straight for store assistants, aka me.

The scruffy supervillain of our tale is one such person. I, unaware of what terrors are soon to befall me, am vacuuming the books area when I hear a voice behind me ask what sounds like a question.

I turn and face every neckbeard stereotype compressed into one 5'8" mass of BO, scraggly facial hair and an Edgy As Heck graphic tee. Very, very close to my person space, close enough to make me step back. Extremely creepy and also pulling material from a lot of stories I've read on this sub. However, I do my best not to be judgmental, so I give our guy a smile and ask him to repeat the question that I didn't hear. A simple "sorry, what did you say?" would suffice, I thought.

Now, you'd think that the fact I was using a very loud vacuum and had my back to Graphic Tee Guy would have been enough to understand that I didn't hear him, but oh no. Apparently my innocent question was an insult. In response I receive the following rant:

"MANGA. I'm looking for MANGA. Artistic graphic novels from Japan. I know it might be HARD for the average person to understand something so CULTURED but you could at least TRY to help me find what I need instead of being such an IGNORANT BITCH." He said more, but it was mainly repetition of the same sentiment. I'm an uncultured pig-woman who should expand her mind and learn about the covert art of Manga instead of insulting gentlemen like himself by not knowing what it is. He also called me a "normie" in there somewhere too, which is definitely not a word that I thought people actually said out loud. He's clearly mistaken my not hearing him as not knowing what manga was, and that's like, a person insult to his belief system or something.

Now, to this I have two responses. One, I know what manga is. Everyone knows what manga is, buddy. Get out of your own arse. Two, if he'd bothered to turn his fuzzy head, we were literally standing 5 feet away from an entire bookcase of Manga, labelled as GRAPHIC NOVELS in big, black, unmistakeable letters. At this point I'm already 10000% done with this dude but, the lord hath blessed me with a job I enjoy and am paid well for, so I'm gonna have to stick it out. I keep the customer service smile fixed in place and give him the best response I can manage. "I know what manga is sir, I just didn't hear you the first time you asked, with the vacuum being so loud. Of course, I can show you where it is." And I put my vacuum down and make a big show of guiding him the entire 10 steps of the way to the shelves, so maybe he'll at least on some level process what a scene he's made for basically no reason.

Of course, subs like this wouldn't exist if they were self-aware, would they? See, our smelly antagonist still believes only people on His Level are aware of what manga is. So what does that make me?

In a total personality 180, he's giving me the creepiest smile I've ever seen in my life. He picks up a copy of something and starts talking to me. "You know manga? Have you read this one? Its one of my absolute favourites but nobody I know has ever read it." I'm trying to slowly back my way out of this situation when he clasps a meaty, nail-bitten, sweaty hand ON MY SHOULDER and carries on with "you know, you're pretty cute. When do you get off work? You should totally meet me for a drink and then maybe I can show you my manga collection!"

I try to smoothly step out of his claw grasp and send a curse up to the retail gods. "I'm sorry, you misunderstood. I don't read manga or anything, I just know what it is from when customers ask me for it. I've never read it, though."

You know how in books you read stuff like "a range of emotions played across his face"? I'd never seen that in action until this moment. Confusion, disappointment, anger, embarrassment. He finally settled on the mid point between confusion and anger. "Don't lie to me! Average people don't know what Manga is! You've read it, I can tell, you just don't wanna go on a date with me so you're backtracking!"

Now I'm like woah, buddy. This conversation started 90 seconds ago with you yelling in my face. And you ever thought a date was on the cards?

He continues with "this always happens to me! Girls always think they're better than me! Your standards are all fucking ridiculous, I bet you'd go for that drink with me if I were a Chad!" I didn't know much about the whole neckbeard/incel thing at this point but I knew enough to know that guys who use the word Chad for real, out loud, in public, are bad news. I also knew that I was ready for this conversation to be over. I gave him my best professional-cold stare and said "Look. I'm at work, I'm not here to socialise, and I'm not looking for a date. Ive never read a manga in my life and you're making yourself look ridiculous. Now one of my colleagues is at the till, so I suggest you go and pay for your comic and leave me alone before I have to call security to make you."

For a second I really thought he was gonna argue with me some more, but he just gave me the filthiest look and then stormed away to the storefront in a cloud of bad smells and bad attitude. Some later recon with the cashier informed me that he paid for his book without consequence, but told her that "that bitch at the back" should be fired.

I hope he enjoyed his lonely Manga.

Submitted June 24, 2018 at 07:21PM by humhallelujahh https://ift.tt/2K8R0Zz